This morning, I took a new “Boot Camp” class, and my friend Jon taught me the coolest exercise!  I really want to share it with all of you.  The reason why I think this exercise is so great is because you can do it in your own home, while hanging with your kids, or just tidying up the house!  So, here it is: 

Take any cards you have, either playing cards, or any cards that your kids might have, either from school, or just part of a game, and lay them down in a row, starting closest to your feet, and continue vertically from there, laying them down one by one.  The bigger the size of the cards, the better for the purpose of this exercise.  Just a warning that the more cards you put down, the harder the exercise becomes.  Once all the cards are laid out in front of you, return to the first card. 

Begin by squatting to pick up the first card.  Make sure you don’t bend over, because that defeats the whole purpose.  The goal is to squat using your butt and glutes.  Once you pick up the first card, squat again to place it on top of the second card.  Now that you’re empty-handed, squat again to pick up one of the two cards in that second pile.  Then, squat to pick up the second card in that pile.  So now, you should have two cards in your hands.  Now, squat to return one card to the floor, and then do another squat to return the second card to the floor.  So the goal here is to pick up and drop off each card by squatting for each one.  You can’t pick up all the cards in one pile with one squat.  So let’s say you have 10 cards in your row.  Once you have picked up and dropped off all 10 cards, you will have done 110 squats!!!  You can of course start off with however few or many cards you can handle.   How’s that for a summer-ready butt???!!!